1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to delivery of multi-media content into consumer's homes, and is particularly concerned with a network architecture or multi-source bridge network distribution system and method for integrating content from different sources and allowing the content to be offered by content distribution providers to end users over access networks.
2. Related Art
There are huge battles being waged over the delivery of multi-media content into consumer's homes. In addition to the incumbent cable and satellite offerings, there are now offerings from telephone companies as they attempt to reinvent their businesses. In the near future, there will be offerings from the large web portals such as Yahoo! and Google. These web portals are currently searching for ways to bring content to consumers. However, they have virtually no ownership to the access networks. An access network is a network that connects subscribers to telecommunication service providers over public ground. For example, an access network may provide a route between the subscriber's home and an Internet Service Provider (ISP) itself. Access networks are used by the various consumers around the world.
The problem with all of these competing services is that it tends to fracture the content offerings. For example, a consumer would need to go to a satellite service to get all of the football games on a given Sunday. At the same time, the same consumer would need to go to the telephone company's (Telco's) service in order to get the latest in video-on-demand (VOD) content. Similarly, the same consumer may need to go to the web to get the widest selection of documentaries. Finally, this consumer may need to use the local cable service (with its specific content offerings) as the access network. As you can see, the consumer is not well served in this scenario as all of the competing platforms are using (and withholding) content in order to promote their own branded services.
There are many important factors to consider when looking to ultimately satisfy the needs of the consumer for access to multi-media content from various providers. Some of these factors are:    1. The most convenient and easy-to-use offering.    2. The best possible pricing model.    3. The widest selection of readily available content or “titles”.    4. Powerful search capabilities in order to find these titles.    5. Time-shifting devices that allow for the capture of content to be played at a more convenient time    6. Place-shifting technologies that allow a consumer to enjoy content in other geographical areas.
In addition to these items listed above, it is also very important that the present-day competitive environment stay intact, as a monopoly (or virtual monopoly) in the area of Pay-TV could cause significant problems to everyone concerned. For the consumer, such a monopoly would limit the number of innovative solutions that are made available to the market and pricing models for various services may be kept prohibitively high. For content owners, a monopoly could damage their ability to appropriately monetize their valuable content. Such a monopoly could also damage the distribution chain as there may be extreme pressure being exerted from both sides of the equation.
The problem in the market is well recognized by most consumers of television product. Even with more than 100 broadcast channels and hundreds of VOD titles, there never seems to be anything interesting to watch on television [TV]. Given the enormous library of audio/video content that's available today, the consumer tends to be the unlikely victim of the wars between the various service providers. The consumer can be frustrated because an enormous amount of content is withheld due to a myriad of business and political reasons. Although it is understood that certain titles will be withheld in order to maximize the monetary potential within a dedicated channel of distribution, there is no reason why the majority of all content be withheld. Rather, it may be a better strategy to offer these huge libraries of content in such a way as all participants within the distribution chain profit from the experience.
When you look at the competitive landscape today, one threat stands out. The large web portals could relegate the access network operators to being the broadband pipe only. This would mean a consumer uses his or her local access network to log-on to the Internet, and then all future content plays become transactions between the consumer and the web portal directly. There would be no cooperation or revenue sharing between the web portal and the access network operator. Therefore, there is little or no motivation for the partners within the established content distribution chains to participate with the web portals.
Certain government agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US are constantly looking for ways to make the competitive landscape fair and to bring the best possible service offerings and value offerings to consumers. Although these agencies ultimately look to protect the consumer, their efforts continue to fracture the various content offerings as well.
Although content owners world-wide ultimately want to make the greatest return on their investment, they have an equal interest in keeping the landscape competitive. If a huge company steps in and purchases the bulk of their content today, this same company may drive down prices in the future (after eliminating all competition). Although it is understandable that content owners would take steps to protect themselves from a potential monopolistic environment, this further adds to the problem of fractured content offerings to consumers as described above.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that overcomes these significant problems found in the conventional systems as described above.